Michele Rollins was elected to the Wilmington Trust Board of Directors in 2007. During the market collapse in 2008, Wilmington Trust, like many other financial institutions, received a $330 million bailout from TARP. Unlike many other financial institutions, Wilmington Trust has as of yet failed to pay that money back. Instead, it payed its top executives $31.5 million in bonuses, including to Michele Rollins. Indeed, she saw her compensation she received from her position on the Wilmington Trust Board quadruple AFTER Wilmington Trust took the TARP funds.
From a just now issued press release from the DCCC:
“Multi-millionaire Michele Rollins is shamefully lining her pockets with taxpayer dollars while families across Delaware are struggling during these tough economic times,” said Shripal Shah, Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Michele Rollins is a living and breathing example of all that is wrong with corporate greed and her profits at the expense of taxpayers proves that she is grossly out of touch with the best interests of Delaware families.
“The last thing Delaware needs in Congress is Michele Rollins, the poster child for the anger and animosity that has been rightfully directed at multi-millionaire executives in recent years.” […]
[Michele Rollins] received $20,000 Annual Compensation in 2007 and 2008. According to a Forbes profile of Rollins published in 2009, she received more than $20,000 for each of the previous two years by virtue of her role as a member of the Board of Directors for Wilmington Trust. [Forbes, 2009]
2008: Wilmington Trust Corporation Received $330 Million in TARP Money. In 2008, Wilmington Trust Corporation received $330 million investment from the United States Department of the Treasury (US Treasury) as a part of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) capital purchase program. As of March 18th, 2010, they had yet to begin repayment of those funds to the taxpayers. [Financial Deals Tracker, 12/24/08; http://bailout.propublica.org/entities/527-wilmington-trust-corporation]
Rollins Compensation Quadrupled. According to a 2010 report filed by Forbes on Wilmington Trust Corporation revealed that Rollins’ compensation in 2009 skyrocketed to $92,991.00 – an increase of more than 400 percent over the previous year. [Forbes, 2010]
Wilmington Trust Gave out $31.5 Million in Executive Bonuses in 2009. Despite making no effort to reimburse the federal government for the $330 Million in TARP money they received, Wilmington Trust handed out $31.5 Million in ‘Incentives and Bonuses’ to its top executives in 2009, according to their filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [SEC 10-K Form pg. 65, filed 12/31/09]
This is disgusting. That $31.5 million should have been paid back to U.S. Treasury. Instead, millionaire Michele Rollins, who aspires to become Delawarean’s representative in Congress, and who is already rich enough, mind you, stole that money from the people of Delaware. If she hopes to remain a candidate for Congress, she better open her checkbook and pay back any compensation she received from Wilmington Trust over her starting annual compensation of $20,000. As should every single one of Wilmington Trust’s executives and directors who received a similar bump in compensation.
As for me, I am closing my account at Wilmington Trust on Monday.